Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-10-14
TIE SNAKE CHARMER.

herent madness, or faint in the blood but |
l simply say-as l would that l have a
lock of gray hair in a bad place on my |
head and a mole on my neck-that l am
irresistibly drawn toward tropical snakes
and have leaning in the direction of
fakirs and iugglers. My friend Harcourt
is as much drawn the other way, but /
swear | had no notion of the probable
effect on him the day drew him into a
little cross street or court, where a num-
Der of very fat. well preserved boas were
lolling in the pleasant obscurity of a dark
glass case on pile of semi-white
blankets.
Harcourt, something of a dreamer
generally, followed me in my searchings
after wonders, as amiably as a collie.
with only an understanding in a tacit
sort of way that | was not to introduce
him to women who would fancy it an in
cumbent benevolence to pull him out and
make him talk.
/ hardly think he knew where we were
until l forcibly plucked him in out of the
unrestricted glare of July day to the
gaudily papered passageway to the mu-
scum.
"IIarcourt, I have some lovely speci-
bras. and an awfully swell kind
of snake charmer done up in the
true Oriental fimsies-red Golf,
bracelets of sequns, bare ankles,
and all that. The Rajah is snake you
should know. Upon my life, think he
begins to know me-
With the best intentions in the world.
! gave Harcourt little push and he
stumbled against the cage with dull
thump on the glass which reused Rajah,
and. rearing his head very sensibly, he
gazed straight into our eyes. AS pale
and limp as a live man could ever be-
come, my friend shrank back and seemed
suddenly bereft of his legs. l steadied
him up, and really thought on the mo-
ment that the ministerial Harcourt had
fmbibed an extra glass of some spirited
American drink. Ee asked me to take
him in the air. He was pitiably weak.
and as ghastly as if he had seen his grand
mothers ghost in a camera obscura.
The strong, rollicking breeze brought
him round, and almost quite himself he
led the way to one of the little wayside
parks so refreshingly frequent in the large
cities of this country. He laid his hat on
the park seat and nervously wiped his
forehead, while | tried to entce a pigeon
from the gravel with plum cake. seeming
not to notice his strange agitation.
He reverted to the affair uppermost in
my mind himself in his painfully straight
forward way:
Don't laugh, Strahan, when l tell
you that am a slave to an all pervading
dominant horror. l cannot look at
snakes. although once | really believed
that nature intended to inspire admira-
ton in making a brown and green boa.
And women of the tropics were once my
alteration. with their brown. velvety
skins, black eyes and graceful move
ments." He shuddered. Now / can
never see the one without being reminded
of the other. In fact, think there has
been a sort of sympathy between women
and snakes since the conquest of Eve by
the Serpent. Both are fascinating The
serpent fastens you with its gaze like a
woman; the woman stings you to death
like the snake. Let me tell you my
story. Perhaps then you may find some
excuse for me, and tolerance of some
thing which is not superstition, heaven
knows"
could not think of anything to say, so
I said nothing.
Harcourt, as l have explained, was
painfully direct. do not like verbiage,
but | shun man generally who dives
headlong into thing and drags you with
him. Yet liked Harcourt, as we some
times do u chap who we fancy has suf-
fered his full measure.
There are pages in my life, Strahan,
which you do not know; but you do
know that l was one of her majesty s
foot guards in India and that / sold my
commission on account Of fever to De
Land, of the Hawkhurst Blues, and left
before my time. l was wild fellow il
those days A few hours before my de
parture, while returning from tiger
hunt in which / and my followers were
shanefully outwitted, | ran across the
tent of a snake charmer-a villainousy
dirty old IIindoo, who with horrible yelli
and imprecations made the twilight hid
eous by cudgeling his daughter, as ht
swore she was, while she asseverated
simply his slave. interfered, of course
We had free fight, leaving the old faki
hors de combat, and / bore off the chile
Zobeide-one of the loveliest creature
even then that had ever seen, and a
wild as a hawk.
1T was lucky that l had been full,
prepared to quit the country. AS it wa
the boys of my mess begged me to hav,
nothing to do with Parsee, Hindoo o
Arab women-to leave this dark eyet
hour behind. Seeing me obdurate Capt
Bellamy said:
"'Do as you will, Harcourt; but yo
may regret the day you did so foolish
thing. Kindly remember that warne
you
"And how often have!
''But then-it was with gloom of eS
ultation admitted to myself the entir
ownership of anything SO untainted an
so beautiful as Zobeide. She was as dc
Gcious to my senses as pomegranate blo'
som, and was gratitude itself. Poo
starved unloved little thing! She Irvine
about me like vine" Again that col